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I came up with the list below after I read from a magazine a similar list (Advice From Your 25-Year Old Self). The list also reminded me of the movie, Time Traveler’s Wife when Alba (the daughter) who is also a traveler met her older self. So I thought if that happens to me, what advice would I give to a younger me. Though this one sort of sound like a list of regrets for failing to do most of them before, I thought maybe for the ‘younger’ readers of this blog, the list will be helpful. So here it goes.

Advice (From Google images)

1. Make a lot of friends. —It doesn’t have to be too many. You do not have to be friends with everyone, but a least learn how to mingle with others. Socialize. But choose the people you hang out with carefully. Stay away from BIs (Bad Influences). I like that you are not a people- pleaser, so keep it up.

2. Make sure you get in touch with them. — You graduate from high school and college, get a first job, resign and move to other company. And you lost the communication with the people you’ve been friends with all these years. So when you’re done with Advice # 1, get in touch with them on a regular basis. Make sure you won’t let 2 months pass without having a conversation with them.

3. Take care of your teeth. — Yup, this is very important. Visit the dentist at least twice a year for oral prophylaxis. You need braces for your teeth too.

4. Engage in Sports. — Play any sports – anything that will make you run and sweat. It’s good for the health and will boost your confidence. Learn football. You’ll fall in love that sport later on.

6. Study Harder. I’m serious about this. — While school isn’t that important when you are in the ‘real world’, studying harder is. Focus on your studies. Learn. Be serious about it. Do your homework and stop cramming. Don’t be a procrastinator.

7. Learn different Languages. — Learn how to speak, read and write in another language, apart from Filipino and English. But you should master Filipino, otherwise it will be such a shame that you don’t. Learn Spanish, Hindi, Italian or Korean. You’ll be interested with the countries associated with them later on, especially Hindi.

Advice (From Google images)

8. Learn to play a musical instrument. — For the sake of having a ‘talent’, learn to play an instrument. Haha 🙂

9. Take care of your skin. — While you like to run around the neighborhood, play hide and seek or climb trees, you should still take care of your skin by not bruising it. There will be occasions in the future that will require you to wear dresses or outfits that will reveal a bit of your skin, and you don’t want those scars to be seen for sure.

10. Read a lot. — No need for lengthy explanation. I know you do read a lot now so it’s good.

11. Learn how to drive. — So when your dad is tired, you can take the wheel.

12. Save. — Save a lot. Invest for your future. I know you like to help your boost your country’s economy :), but help yourself too by saving for your future. Save because you want to travel to different places.

13. Stay away from Credit Cards. — Your mother already told you about this. Listen to her. Plus it will always feel good to pay in cash and be debt-free.

14. Be nice. — Don’t be cruel to others. Give them a chance. You wouldn’t know what kind of a person they are if you won’t.

15. Guard your heart. — ‘Heart is the wellspring of life’ says the book of Proverbs, therefore you must guard it. While it is inevitable that you will have a crush on someone, fall in love and get your heart broken, you must learn how to guard your heart. Don’t do the same mistake twice. Stay away from men who are just good in words but never in action. If they cheated, let them go, they’ll probably do it again. You don’t want to be broken twice because of the same person. You deserve to be treated well.

There is this popular song by a local artist about requesting a song to a DJ. But don’t worry, I won’t sing it. LOL. 🙂

Well, it’s been a while since I wrote about the little things to smile about. (I should be doing this every week as my way of counting my blessings instead of complaining. Exercise the gratitude muscle. 🙂 ) So, for the “Something to Smile About” this week or let’s narrow it down to today, I will talk about DJ Scotty.

DJ who?

DJ Scotty of Jam 88.3.

I’m not sure what percentage of an audience share Jam 88.3 has but I think they also have quite a lot of listeners. Well I’m not exactly loyal to one radio station, but Jam 88.3 is one of those I like to tune in to. (Although, I don’t listen regularly to the radio.) So there, one sleepy Friday afternoon while at work and getting bored writing test cases I decided to listen to the radio from my mobile phone to perk myself up.

So there’s the DJ talking non-stop and playing music in between his talk. “Right, too much blabbing,” I thought at first. But because of beautiful music being played, I stayed tune. I didn’t pay too much attention on the incessant talking; I was just concerned about the music that’s why I sort of regularly listen to them every afternoon especially on Fridays since they play 90’s music.

Then as it when on, I sort of noticed something different with this DJ –aside from noticing that he is quite smart, knowing a lot of things (trivia and gen. info), I started to notice his accent too. Nope, it’s not an odd accent and it’s actually some sort of a British accent or something similar to that. However, the accent is only obvious when he pronounces some words and when he speaks in Filipino, he’s just as good as the locals. And with the way he talks, I was guessing that he’s around early 20’s or even late teens…so I thought, who is this kid DJ trying to sound foreign?

So I Googled and found out and he is actually Scottish! Right! I went to Jam88.3’s website and they have this live video streaming that you could actually see the Jocks in booth.

I found out his name is DJ Scotty (or James Crawford is his ‘real life’). And he is not trying to sound foreign, he is actually one! He is from Scotland, and have the Scottish accent, hence he is nicknamed “Scotty” LOL.

Well,I have to admit, I love his accent! 🙂 I’m such a sucker for ‘accent’. I don’t know but it is just very appealing to me when I hear a man with a beautiful accent.

Then today, just out of the blue, as I was listening to another DJ (Roanna I think), I thought about checking out their site again and saw the text marquee about how to send a message to JAM88.3. So I thought about sending a request to play the song JUMPER by 3rd Eye Blind and maybe some The Corrs song and I did. However I attended a training in my office that lasted for about 2 hours so I didn’t know if DJ Roanna played my request. When I got back to my seat, it was already DJ Scotty’s turn. So I decided to send the request again and after a few minutes, while working on my task and singing along with my favorite late 90’s music, DJ Scotty played JUMPER!!! I knew it was the request that I sent via text, so I was so happy singing along with it. That song is just nice and it reminds me of one of my favorite movies- Yes Man.

Then after the song, DJ Scotty said that the song is actually for me! Yup! He mentioned my name “Y.” 🙂 Then he said, “And she (pertaining to me) said that she actually likes me. Thanks for the cute smiley face. The message just captured my attention.” Hahaha… While I wouldn’t deny that I really did send a message about liking (him) and that cute smiley emoticon, what I actually wrote was that, “Btw, I love your accent.” But it just made me laugh when he said that I like him. LOL. 🙂

Here's the DJ with the accent - DJ Scotty.

So there you go the thing that made me smile and happy today – hearing my requested song on the radio and capturing the attention of DJ Scotty.

And oh, I must admit, he is cute (at least from the way I see him from the live video streaming) although he sort of looks like a ‘boy’. 🙂

** I love this piece by Ms. Urquico. I love reading it over and over and over, and I won’t even get tired and sick of reading it. It’s beautifully written and very true. I could relate. 🙂

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by God, she’s going to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Asian, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.

Like this:

I won’t be writing about the horrors of taking a cab in Manila, because personally I haven’t experienced it and not looking forward to experiencing it. Never! I guess, the closest I’ve got was the overcharging, which happened way back when I was still a student.

I’ve heard a lot of stories about people being victims of cab drivers’ rudeness, being held up by the drivers themselves, sometimes with an accomplice, and the worst, being raped or killed. I came to know about their stories from forwarded emails or Facebook post shared by a friend of a friend. Whether their stories are real or not, reading their taxi-horror stories made me very cautious and careful about the cab I take.

Actually, every morning before I leave for work I always ask God to protect me, guide me and provide the right transportation to get to work safe. I always pray that he provides me the right cab, with a polite, honest and courteous driver. And he never fails. There was one time I prayed for the right taxi, and he provided me a cab with Christian driver, how did I know? He is listening to some worship songs when I hopped in. Of course I asked him if he is and indeed he is! It was actually a great way to start the day – listening to some Gospels on your way to work! How cool!

I hope everyone would do the same thing – praying before the leaving their houses. Not only God will help you get to your destination safe, but also he will be glad to hear from you everyday! 🙂

Like this:

I love the late 90’s and early 2000’s music. I always think the music back then was a better than today’s. Lady Gaga? Katy Perry? Justin Bieber? Ewww! Not my type!

Late 90’s and early 2000’s was the era of the alternative rock, pop rock and boyband/girl bands. Who would forget Backstreet Boys, Boyzone, Spice Girls? What about bands like Hanson, Matchbox 20? Coldplay? Foo Fighters? Incubus? Korn? They sure ring a bell for those who were born in the early 80’s. I’m sure many can relate about watching MTV during their teen years. But there’s a particular song of particular band I’d like to talk about.

Remember Semi-Charmed Life by 3RD Eye Blind?

“Dooo Dooo Dooo Dooo Dooo Dooo Dooo Dooo Dooo….”

Familiar?

I always like that song. It’s upbeat, catchy and just sets you in a good mood. I don’t remember the first time I heard it but I only remember liking it since it hit the radio. I like the song too much I saved the mp3 in my computer and play it whenever I am in the good mood or want to be a good mood.

And although I very much know the chorus and a few lines in the verses, I didn’t pay too much with the lyrics. I just knew that there are some sort of depressing lines in the song despite its upbeat tune like the “She’s got her jaws now locked down in smile but nothing is alright” and the “The four right chord can make me cry.” But I was just too caught up with the catchy tune that makes me want to dance or bang my head a little. And it’s only lately when I actually decided to take a look at the lyrics because I feel challenge upon memorizing the sung-like-a-rap-song verses and sing a long with it. I even listed “Memorize Semi-Charmed Life song” as one of the items under my1000 Things To Do Before I Die.

So I googled the song… and I was shocked! The catchy and upbeat song I love talks about SEX and DRUGS (METH)! And it took me more than a decade to actually know it! How LAME! So all along, I was singing about doing METH and raunchy SEX?

Well I knew some parts of the song is about sex and some verses talk directly about doing meth (“doing Crystal Meth will lift you up until you break”), but I didn’t know the song was entirely dedicated to those two. My interpretation was then strongly confirmed by the video from 2008 that I found in youtube, with Stephan Jenkins, Third Eye Blind’s lead singer, actually admitting that it is a dirty song! Watch the video below:

Oh well, I’m almost done memorizing it (I just need to brush up a little), so maybe I can cross it out from my 1,000 things. But still, I’m still in shocked how it took me more than 10 years to actually know what the song means.

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